Saipan

Nikonian goes Olympus

Normally, I don't care with what camera I shoot, as long it is a Nikon. However, my new camera finally arrived yesterday. You may have guessed it from the headline: It is an Olympus E-1. This model itself is already some three years old, and I actually wanted one since that time. Only problem was that the rig I got would have costed some $3,000 +. Now this model didn't sell as well as Olympus had projected, so they cut the price brutally. Just so far that I could more or the less afford one.

A short review: I was looking for a solid, comfortable camera with a lens that is as good as a Nikkor 35-70/2.8 (still one of the best lenses Nikon ever made). Enter E-1. When you take that thing out of the box, you ask yourself how in the world could market Olympus their 4/3 system as being smaller than other cameras. It is actually about the same size as my old Nikon F90x (and as heavy) which has been a benchmark for me for years.
Mount the booster on the camera, you have one serious piece of technic in your hand. Talking about hand: For me, Nikon has built the most ergonomic cameras so far, but the E-1 turns that impression somewhat. Olympus seems to be in the glove business. The camera fits perfeclty in your hand. The buttons seem to be strewn all over the place on a first look, but once you have the camera in your hand, you'll see immediately that there was a plan behind the button placement. Each of them is easily to reach with your thumb. I guess with a bit of practice, you could change settings without even taking the camera from the eye.
The camera is generally well engineered. Everything is rock solid. Pressing the shutter is a feast. It is very soft, but when you take the actual picture, you are in for a surprise: I was used the KLACCCCKKKK, ZZZZZRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTT sound from my F90. From the E-1 you only hear a very decent klack. It reminds me on the cloth shutters of vintage cameras.
Then, when you transfer the images to a computer, you are in for a second surprise: The colors are terrific. They very saturated, but not overly so. Close to Fuji Velvia (the film for the color blind), but not as overblown.



There have been many complaints about the Olympus E-1. I had only limited time to use it so far, but I can tell you, most of the complaints are hogwash - disclaimer: I use cameras picture taking, not for pixel peeping.

The first outing was last night's All Saints Day dinner with the extended family that evolved into the usual orgy. We had the party in a tent, lighted with 2 100 Watt bulbs. This light enabled me to shoot at ISO3200 with shutter speeds of about 1/15-1/25 handheld. Of course, the the pictures were soft and grainy (noisy). However, no one in his right mind would print that stuff. I only put it on our family web site sized 640x480. And guess what, in that size you whether see the bluriness, nor the noise. For emails to grandma this always sufficient.

The second complaint is the Viewfinder. I love it! It is very bright and clear. You can see 100% of the picture in it, and it doesn't look like a tunnel, as many other DSLR's. The only thing I have to get used to is the magnification. I took some flower pictures today and was always amazed how close I was to my subject ... kinda like the mirror on your passenger door (they should put a warning sticker on the camera "Subjects are closer than they appear").

Many people complain that the camera was slow in low light focus. That's crap! I didn't have any problem to focus at all. My victims were about 15 to 20 feet away from me, some even in near darkness. The focus locked always very fast. The red assist lamp helps a lot. As a matter in fact, I was happy to have the E-1. With my trusty Nikon I could not have done that (shoot without flash at near darkness, I mean).

3 fps? So what? My F90 made 4 frames per second, but within 10 seconds I would have gone through a roll of film, and after the second roll through a set of batteries. And believe me, it takes longer to change film and batteries than it takes the E-1 to write the content of its buffer to the card. I never felt it was slow.

I shot about 300 images of the alcohol induced activities during the orgy (all in RAW), and today, while treating my hangover, I went through the pictures. sure, they were noisy and soft, but the Olympus colors came through. I put some stuff up on my web galery, but it is password protected (as not to embarass my folks).

For converting the RAWs I used the Olympus software and Rawshooter Essentials. I like both programs. While many users complain about the Olympus software, I didn't have the slightest problem with it. Just try Nikon's editor once! A batch convert of about 100 images plus a P/S action for resizing took about 30 minutes. I dind't change any levels or did any sharpening (that stuff was not supposed to be seen in any way ... it was only for testing!), but I have seen that one must be very careful with USM, as jaggies appear very fast.



Can a three year old camera still be impressive? I'd say yes. The E-1 may have ONLY 5 megapixel, but my old Nikon CP5700 didn't have more either, and I have printed in 13x19 from that camera without problems or P/S wizzardry.
Would I want something bigger, better, faster? I don't think so. UIt'll take years, until I have exhausted the capabilities of that camera, and for what I shoot, I wouldn't need more.

posted by Claus @ 10:39 PM